It’s billed as the world’s largest biotechnology convention–18,000+ bio professionals are expected to attend April 9 through 12 at Chicago’s Navy Pier. And a dozen state Governors are coming along to show their love for the biotech sector–and the improvements a strong biotech/biomed community usually brings to a state’s economy.

Sending your governor to the conference is one way to gauge the level of passion for courting the bioscience industry. States that are doing so include: Illinois (Rod Blagojevich), Alabama (Bob Riley), Florida (Jeb Bush), Indiana (Mitch Daniels), Massachusetts (Mitt Romney), Michicgan (Jennifer Granholm), Minnesota (Tim Pawlenty), Missouri (Matt Blunt), Ohio (Bob Taft), the self-governing commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Anibal Acevedo-Vila), and Wisconsin (Jim Doyle).

Panel discussions will feature healthcare and regulatory issues such as:

• opportunities and challenges in plant-based pharmaceuticals
• ethics and race-based drug development
• results of a national survey on the relationship of the FDA to the life science industry
• new discoveries in cancer treatment
• business and the metabolic syndrome (how business and funding affects treatments for a cluster of common conditions like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease)

Conference attendees are looking at how scientific discoveries can lead–faster and less expensively–to better treatment options. This is what bioscience is all about. Learn more here.